Cardinal’s rule: Silence is golden

How the Atlantic Coast Conference will handle the aftermath of revelations that a Wake Forest football analyst was shopping parts of the Deacons’ game plan to opposing teams?

And what, if anything, will happen to Louisville, which admitted it not only received the information but used it in preparation for the Deacons when they met this season.

What no one at Louisville did was let anyone at Wake Forest know what has happening or inform the ACC office.

Give Boston College football coach Steve Addazio credit for his reaction. When asked by the Boston Herald what he would do if the information had been offered to him, Addazio said, “I would have called Dave (Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson) who is a friend of mine and I would have called the ACC office.”’

Lousville’s reaction was much different. They said nothing, did nothing, and sounded irritated when asked about it.

But then again this is a school who has had major image problems in football and basketball with its coaching staffs, but also is turning out championship caliber teams.

And in the end, that is all that matters.

So what will the ACC do and what will happen to Louisville?

The ACC issued the following statement: “Protecting competitive integrity is fundamental to the Atlantic Coast Conference. The conference office is in the process of obtaining the internal findings from Wake Forest University. Based on the information provided, and any other information obtained, the league office will perform its due diligence, and as necessary, additional discussions and actions will occur.”

Take that for what it’s worth.

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How much of an impact will Lane Kiffin’s arrival as the new football coach at Florida Atlantic have? Well, it didn’t take long. On Thursday, FAU announced that it had a commitment from a transfer student from East Mississippi JC, QB DeAndre Johnson, who threw for 26 TDS for 2,640 yards and ran for 8 more TDs for 834 yards.

If the name sounds familiar to some college football fans, it should. Johnson was a 2015 FSU recruit who was dismissed from FSU after a video tape showed him punching a female patron at a Tallahassee bar.

But then again, at FSU, QBs assaulting women is not a shocking revelation, is it?

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How did the ODU footbball team, which won 9 games this season, and will face Eastern Michigan in the Bahama Bowl, get so good, so quickly? The Monarchs have been playing FBS football since only 2013. In their first three years they were 5-6, 6-5 and 5-6 as a member of Conference USA. They jumped to 9-3 this season.

Contrast that with UMass, which has been playing at the FBS level for five seasons and has posted records of 1-11, 1-11, 3-9, 3-9, and 2-10, but faces a tougher road playing as an independent than as a member of a Conference.

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The Boston College basketball team found a way to beat Auburn in Madison Square Garden with a gutsy effort on Monday night. Can they keep it up for the rest of the calendar year? Can they find a way to squeeze a few more wins from Sacred Heart, Fairfield and Providence before they jump into the ACC season with a home opener against Syracuse on January 1?

More good news for BC. The Eagles picked up a 4-star recruit, A.J. Dillon, a 6-foot 1, 230-pound running back from Lawrence Academy in Groton, Ma. Dillon had originally committed to Michigan, but felt he had a better chance of becoming a prime time player quicker at BC and also wanted to stay closer to home. In three seasons at Lawrence, Dillon scored 59 Tds and rushed for 3,890 yards. If you add him to a combo which includes redshirt freshman QB Anthony Brown there might indeed be a light at the end of a bleak offensive tunnel in BC’s future.

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Is any recruit going to be able to get away from Clemson this year? Not if you take a look at the Tigers’ soon to be opened (in February) 55 million dollar football complex, which brings new meaning to the phrase state of the art.

In addition to all of the football level comforts, the facility has a barber shop, a mini golf course, a movie theater, a covered basketball court, a barbecue bit, a virtual reality room, a wiffle ball field, and a slide from the second floor to the first.

Such opulence is becoming part of the recruiting profile for the Power 5 conference front runners and is a key in closing deals.

Top level recruiting is usually limited to a small circle of schools. As of Friday, the 34 of the Top 50 recruits on the Rival.com recruiting list had already committed to schools.

Twenty two of those 34 had committed to five schools, Ohio State (7), Alabama (6), Clemson, Georgia and FSU (3).

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Call it what you want, the Minnesota football team is on strike in protest over the suspension of 10 members of the Gophers, four who were involved in an off campus incident iin September.

One problem with that move, Minnesota is scheduled to play Washington State in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 27th. A decision must be made in the next few days on how to resolve the issue.

If Minnesota maintains its stance, the bowl will need another team. Right now Northern Illinois, which finished with a 5-7 record, but is the next team up as a replacement because of a strong Graduation Progress Rate which is the measuring stick used for filling in open spots created when not enough teams are bowl eligible.

The only problem with that move is that once NIU was out of the bowl picture, it wrapped up its season and the team scattered for the holidays.